Stories and perspectives of a healthcare executive in pursuit of balance...Training for Life.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Aligning Forces for Quality Hospital Quality Network

St. Joseph Medical Center and its sister organization, St. Mary's Medical Center, are among seven hospitals in the Kansas City Metro area selected to participate in a national program designed to focus on improved models of care for national reform in health care.

The program, Aligning Forces for Quality Hospital Quality Network, is a quality improvement network of over 130 hospitals aimed to address the need to improve the quality, efficiency and equity of care delivered not only in Kansas City, but also in hospitals across the country. St. Joseph and St. Mary's Medical Centers are participating with the Kansas City Quality Improvement Collaborative and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the nation's largest philanthropy dedicated to improving the health and health care of all Americans, to support efforts to improve health care quality.

The program includes three separate quality improvement initiatives aimed at helping hospitals tackle key issues like racial and ethnic disparities, time spent in Emergency Departments (EDs) or readmissions of patients recently discharged. The Carondelet Health facilities have teams participating in all three areas.

Hospital teams in the program will pilot and test quality improvement strategies over an 18-month period. In all, 17 regions of the country have been designated as part of Aligning Forces. In each region, a range of efforts to help doctors, nurses and hospitals improve quality - as well as engage consumers to be better patients - is being tested.

Our nation is always seeking ways to improve patient care. Our selection into this program is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of our staff and physicians, and our continued focus on efficiency, effectiveness and quality outcomes.